NSB manager proposes 7.1 percent tax rate increase

Wednesday

Jun 26, 2013 at 6:50 PMJun 26, 2013 at 7:47 PM

The proposed property tax rate for fiscal 2013-14 when the figures are rounded up is $3.63 per $1,000 of assessed value, a 5.5 percent increase from the current rate of $3.44 and a 7.1 percent increase over the rolled-back rate of $3.39.

RICHARD CONNSTAFF WRITER

NEW SMYRNA BEACH — City Manager Pam Brangaccio has asked for a 5 percent property tax rate increase in next fiscal year's budget, saying the city is at a “crossroads” when it comes to having to replace vehicles and other capital equipment. The proposed property tax rate for fiscal 2013-14 when the figures are rounded up is $3.63 per $1,000 of assessed value, a 5.5 percent increase from the current rate of $3.44 and a 7.1 percent increase over the rolled-back rate of $3.39. The rolled-back rate represents the tax levy needed to generate the same revenue as the current year, using new assessments of the same properties. “I think this year for me, the crossroads is the capital equipment replacement,” Brangaccio told commissioners Tuesday during an overview of the proposed budget. Among the requested $628,000 in requested capital replacement equipment costs are two trucks, a mower and a 4-ton asphalt trailer for the Public Works Department, cardiac monitors and defibrillators and rescue tools for the Fire Department and a new roof for the building maintenance storage building. There is $227,000 credit remaining in the police pension fund from where the city overpaid from fiscal years 2003 to 2005 and that will be used to purchase several replacement vehicles for the Police Department, City Finance Director Althea Philord said. The City Commission on Tuesday also approved transferring money from the sanitation fund to purchase a new firetruck for about $496,000 that will replace an older vehicle in the fleet. Brangaccio said the city has dipped into its undesignated fund balance the past several years to cover capital costs but that money is dwindling. “Those dollars have gotten smaller and smaller, because the budget has gotten smaller and smaller,” she said. “We're at the point in terms of capital equipment replacement where we literally are going to have to raise the millage in terms of that increase over roll-back or hit that undesignated fund balance again knowing that within two years there won't be any dollars there, literally, to utilize.” The proposed $40 million budget also includes a 2 percent across-the-board increase for city employees. If approved, it would be the second year in a row city workers have received a pay hike. Before this fiscal year's budget, city employees had not gotten a salary increase in four years. Negotiations are ongoing with the city's three labor unions on new contracts. Philord said it has been seven years since the City Commission adopted a property tax rate above the rolled-back rate. New Smyrna Beach has the second-lowest property tax rate in Volusia County. DeBary has the lowest at $3.09 per $1,000 of assessed value, according to the city. The City Commission will hold a budget workshop July 30 followed by a special meeting where it will set the proposed property tax rate. A town hall meeting to discuss the budget is tentatively slated for Aug. 22 at the Brannon Center, 105 S. Riverside Drive.

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